State-run Energy Efficiency Services (EESL) plans to invest around Rs.2,400 crore to procure 20,000 electric vehicles for government use by March next year, a senior company official said.

The company is also likely to sign memorandums of understandings (MoUs) with the governments of Maharashtra and Gujarat this month to supply 1,000 and 8,000 electric vehicles, respectively.

“We have got a good response for this project. Already 100 electric vehicles are operational in Delhi. In total, we will be procuring 20,000 electric vehicles by March 2019 and we are investing around Rs.2,400 crore for buying them,” EESL managing director Saurabh Kumar told PTI.

EESL is a joint venture between four other public sector units including NTPC, Power Finance Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation and the Power Grid Corporation of India.

The company had floated a global tender for 10,000 electric vehicles last year to replace the government’s fleet in line with the vision to switch to 100% electric mobility by 2030.

The tender, which comprised 500 vehicles to be procured in phase one and the rest in the second phase, was won by Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra.

Kumar said the firm has signed an MoU with the Andhra Pradesh government to supply 10,000 cars last month and has already floated another tender of an equal number for this.

“The tender process is progressing well and we would be soon entering into agreements with Maharashtra and Gujarat governments,” he added.

With these 20,000 electric cars, EESL expects to save over 5 crore litres of fuel every year, leading to a reduction of over 5.6 lakh tonnes of annual carbon dioxide emission.

EESL has also rolled out the plan for setting up charging stations across the country.

“We have already laid down 250 charging stations in Delhi and a tender has been floated to set up an additional 2,500 stations across the country,” said Kumar.